It was a hectic weekend and so mistake so sadly I was unable to tackle to the planned play test of the first draft of my naval variant of Memoir 44/Battle Cry! I had a number of admin tasks around my rules filing system and these took a lot longer than anticipated meaning that I never got around to either punching the Great War at Sea counters; nor testing the draft rules. In actual fact, I am not sorry this happened because I have had a major rethink about exactly how I tackle this project.
I have changed my approach to the rules as I felt that I was allowing myself to become bogged down in the detail especially in respect of ship specifications. I am now going down the generic specification route with ship differences being represented only where there is a marked difference within vessels of the same notional type. My reasoning behind this has been prompted by the way in which Memoir 44 tackles tank units. Basically, the only differences I can see is that elite tank formations receive an extra model whilst poor formations usually can only move two hexes rather than three. I am not going to use this approach exactly but will limit the changes for better or worse ships of the same notional type. In effect this is the old 'superior, average and inferior' technique which will be simpler to quantify in game terms rather than the calculation of endless individual specifications.
I realise that this may seem like no change at all but from my perspective it is a leap of faith to a degree as I am cutting a certain number of ties with more traditional naval wargames rules.
So it is back to the drawing board. Sort of. Well not exactly..................;-)
I agree- less is more here. You can always bolt extras for that special ship class if you really want to, but get the core mechanics converted first
ReplyDeleteOgrefencer,
ReplyDeleteI have always been a believer in keeping things simple, and that once you have got the mechanisms right, then you add the chrome.
My version of MOBAS has started with a generic set of rules, but I expect that once they are working I can modify them so that specific ships and/or classes can be accommodated within them. We are all on a learning curve in some way.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Tas and Bob,
ReplyDeleteYou are both right of course - I have this wearing tendency to try 'over-egging the omelette' in respect of rules and I really need to rein this in! Core rules and then the chrome should be the way to go. My next draft will be much simpler and will address this in a more sympathetic fashion.
Thanks for your thoughts though, much appreciated.
DC